Claude Maddox
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"Screwy" Claude Maddox (1897-June 22, 1955?), also known under the alias J.E. Moore, was a Chicago mobster and head of the Circus Cafe Gang whose ranks included future Chicago mobsters Anthony "Tough Tony" Capezio, Vincenzo De Mora and Antonino "Tony" "Joe Batters" Accardo [1]. During Prohibition, the gang was the single Northside organization allied with Alphonse "Big Al," "Scarface" Capone's Chicago Outfit.
Born John Edward Moore in Missouri, Maddox's criminal record dated back to the age of 17 and was a member of St. Louis's Egan's Rats before settling in Chicago. Operating out of his North Avenue saloon, the Circus Cafe, the gang began as an independent organization and feuded with the dominating North Side Gang during the early years of Prohibition before allying themselves with the Torrio-Capone's forces. Although largely specializing in safecracking, Maddox also supplied weapons through Peter von Frantizius for Capone during his gang war against the Northsiders.
A suspect in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Maddox was believed to be involved in at least the early planning stages of the attack. In January 1929, Maddox was arrested in a police raid on the Circus Cafe after police discover a drum full of ammunition for Thompson submachine guns as well as numerous overcoats strewn about the back of the cafe (inside one of the coats, a loaded .45 pistol was found). It was speculated that the garage next door was used to "torch cut" one of the getaway cars used in the massacre, however it later caught fire and exploded. Although initially held in custody, Maddox was later released having been in court on an unrelated charge during the time of the massacre. Although reduced to a satellite gang by the end of Prohibition, Maddox himself held a high position in the Chicago syndicate up until his death on June 21, 1955 in his Riverside home, at the age of 58.
However, another account claims Maddox fled Chicago after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre to St. Louis and then headed east where he was associated with Charles "Lucky" Luciano and New York's Murder Inc. before disappearing altogether after the executions of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter before his death from a heart attack on December 22, 1968.
[edit] Further reading
- Binder, John. The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7385-2326-7
- Hucke, Matt and Ursula Bielski. Graveyards of Chicago:: The People, History, Art, and Love of Cook County Cemeteries. Chicago: Lake Claremont Press, 1999. ISBN 0-9642426-4-8
- Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81285-1
- Parr, Amanda Jayne. The True and Complete Story of Machine Gun Jack McGurn: Chief Bodyguard and Hit Man to Chicago's Most Infamous Crime Czar Al Capone and Mastermind of the S. Valentine's Day Massacre. Leicester: Troubador Publishing Ltd., 2005. ISBN 1-905237-13-8
- Schoenberg, Robert J. Mr. Capone. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. ISBN 0-688-12838-6
[edit] References
- Fox, Stephen. Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989. ISBN 0-688-04350-X
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
